Most drivers have been impacted by traffic delays. Traffic delays are caused by one or more traffic incidents, such as congestion, construction, an accident, a special event (e.g., concerts, sporting events, festivals), a weather condition (e.g., rain, snow, tornado), and so on. Regardless of the reason, drivers may become frustrated, which may result in bad driving (e.g., road rage) and stress-related health effects.
A driver is more likely to avoid a traffic incident or at least plan for the incident if the driver receives information regarding the incident prior to reaching the area impacted by the incident. A driver may obtain traffic information from numerous sources, such as television stations, the Internet, and in-vehicle or portable navigation systems. A traffic-information provider typically provides traffic information to these end-user applications.
The traffic-information provider obtains and compiles traffic data from one or more sources. For example, traffic data may be available from commercial traffic data providers, government departments of transportation, police and emergency services, road sensors, cameras, and airborne reports. The traffic-information provider then broadcasts compiled traffic data over a radio frequency to equipment designed to receive the broadcasts. For example, one system for broadcasting traffic and road condition information is the Radio Data System-Traffic Message Channel (RDS-TMC), which is used in some European countries. The traffic-information provider may also upload the data on one or more servers accessible via the Internet. Other distribution methods are also possible.
The end-user application (e.g., television, Internet, navigation system) typically provides a visual indicator on a map identifying a traffic incident. For example, the visual indicator may be an icon merged with the map. The icon may be customized for the type of incident. As another example, the visual indicator may be a color-coded traffic flow graphical representation that uses status colors (e.g., green, yellow, red) to reflect analysis of traffic flow data.
In addition to providing a visual indicator on a map, the end-user application may display images of a traffic incident from cameras located adjacent to a roadway. However, camera images can be difficult to interpret, especially if the driver does not know the direction and/or angle of the camera. As the cameras can often be moved in various ways, the driver cannot easily distinguish what roads are being presented. For example, some road-side cameras can cover a radius of over five miles.
Additionally, camera images may be overly distracting to a driver. Currently, there is no way for a driver to know whether there is something worthwhile in the image, so the driver is required to interpret the image while driving. As a driver views the camera image, the driver is not concentrating on current driving conditions and may cause another traffic incident.
Thus, it would be beneficial to provide images in a manner that allows a person to easily evaluate a traffic incident.